In his latest book, Michael Lucey, who has already written about same-sex issues in Balzac and Gide, examines very carefully how three French citizens involved with same-sex desire-Colette, Gide, and Proust-took advantage of the newness and fluidity of the concept of homosexuality to advance his or her own unique viewpoint over competing ones.

First Person Circuitous

Never Say I: Sexuality and the First Person in Colette, Gide, and Proust
by Michael Lucey
Duke University Press. 321 pages, $23.95 (paper)

IN VOLUME I of The History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault argued that the second half of the 19th century witnessed a major shift in the way that the West defined persons who were sexually attracted to members of their own sex. Until then, the West had thought that anyone might at times be subject to such deviations from the norm, Foucault argued; but this did not specify a type of person with a fixed sexual identity. With the advent of the new “science” of sexuality, however, the homosexual emerged as a distinct “species,” to use Foucault’s provocative word. Most of what passed for medical research and legal analysis ended up portraying these new “homosexuals” in a decidedly hostile and derogatory light. This view in turn engendered responses from certain intellectuals who found themselves on the receiving end of these new explanations and diagnoses.

Sign Up for The Gay & Lesbian Review’s Newsletter!

The Gay & Lesbian Review / Worldwide (The G&LR) is a bimonthly magazine targeting an educated readership of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered (GLBT) men and women. Under the tagline, “a bimonthly journal of history, culture, and politics,” The G&LR publishes essays in a wide range of disciplines as well as reviews of books, movies, and plays.